How a student-run business news wire got started

The North Carolina Business News Wire is a new service from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism that is being operated by some of its business journalism students.

A story on MediaShift states, “The stories will be distributed in a daily email to media across the state, and media will be free to use the content as they see fit without charge. If the wire service is successful in the fall, the School may charge media a small fee to use the content beginning in 2017 to fund student internships for the wire service during the summer.

“One media organization has already begun using the content, with others saying they will begin using the stories soon.

“Rick Smith, a longtime business journalist who runs WRAL.com’s Tech Wire, began using stories last week.

“‘Having your copy helps me greatly, and it also helps that I can expand on your copy quickly as necessary rather than having to read filings then generate stories from scratch,’ said Smith in an email to me. ‘I hope others see the value in what you are providing.’

“Here’s how the wire service will work:

“Each week, the students in the class will have to write at least three stories based on SEC filings. They’ll track North Carolina company filings using Sqoop, the free, online service used by many business journalists throughout the country that allows them to receive regular emails when a company files a document based on their saved search.”

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.